The proliferation of telecommunications infrastructure has resulted in the ubiquitous availability of internet connections. A significant portion of U.S. households have PCs that contain modems, providing users with access to the internet through dial-up connections to ISPs. Recently, broadband internet connections such as cable modems and DSL have been gaining popularity and increasing in market share, especially in the home market. The popularity and extension of a fast digital communication medium into the home is providing the opportunity to bring increased functionality to a variety of devices, as well as driving the creation of whole new classes of connected products. At the same time, the phenomenon of the world wide web has vastly increased the amount of information that is available in digital format. The information available on the web extends across many different media, including text, still images, audio files, streaming audio, and video. There is a great deal of new information on the web that in multimedia format, a combination of still images, audio, and full motion video.
Another technology that is driving ubiquitous access to the internet is home networking (LAN) technology. There is a need for users to connect multiple PCs in the home, or to connect one or more PCs to peripheral devices such as printers, facsimile machines, or broadband gateways. Currently, there are three competing technology mediums for home networking: wireless (radio frequency), AC powerline, and phone line systems. The AC powerline systems are comprised of a data signal superimposed on the 60 cycle alternating current in home electrical wiring systems. Phone line systems likewise include a data signal superimposed at a different frequency, on home phone wiring. Each of these technologies has advantages and disadvantages, and all three currently co-exist in the marketplace. For example, Intel Corporation, of Santa Clara, Calif., markets products that use variously all three of these mediums, under the brand name AnyPoint™. The speed of these technologies varies slightly and the data transfer rate is being made quickly in each technology. For example, the Intel Any Point™ wireless system is actually manufactured by Proxim of Sunnyvale, Calif. Proxim's wireless technology is based on an industry standard for wireless networking technology called HomeRF™. HomeRF™ is based on IEEE (Institute of Electrical Electronic Engineers, Inc.) standard 802.11 which uses the 2.4 gigahertz part of the wireless spectrum. HomeRF™ can currently achieve data rates of approximately 1.6 mbps (million bits per second).
New products have been introduced to take advantage of the availability of ubiquitous internet connections, to allow users to gain access to the vast storehouse of information on the web. Many of these new products attempt to bring browsing capability to scenarios other than the use of a PC. A new class of devices was created when WebTV of Palo Alto, Calif., introduced a product called a set-top box. Set-top boxes are devices that connect to the internet, usually through a dial-up modem, allowing users to browse the internet using their television as the visual output device. Set-top boxes also typically include keyboards or a pointing device to allow the user to interact with an on-screen or on-line interface. Set-top boxes bring greater functionality to televisions.
Another example of a device that is not a PC that attempts to take advantage of on-line access to information is the iPhone, manufactured by infoGear of Redwood City, Calif. The iPhone is an integrated telephone-browser system. It includes a medium size display and an integral modem so that the user can access the web and especially email, at the phone apparatus. The iPhone is also a standalone browser, providing universal access to all content on the world wide web in an interactive format.
The majority of devices that provide connectivity and access to content on the internet provide a browsing function. However, there are other devices in the home or in business locations that can provide substantial function by simply presenting, displaying, or playing information content to a user, rather than supporting fully interactive browsing.
A category of products that are information devices that typically present or play information or content are clocks, alarm clocks, and clock radios. There is a diverse product offering within the product category of clocks and alarm clocks. Clocks with integrated radio receivers, known as clock-radios, are very common. Clock radios typically offer the ability for the user to set the wake up sound as either an alarm sound or radio programming in the AM or FM band. Of course, clock radios are limited to the existing broadcast media selection for the content that they can present to the user. The broadcast model is such that many users listen to the same information. There are also alarm clocks with integrated compact disk players, so that users can further customize the audio wake-up content. The CD/Alarm Clock with Sound Soother® offered by The Sharper Image, of San Leandro, Calif., includes an integrated sound generation machine (the Sound Soother®) that provides soothing sounds, such as running water, waterfall, rain, and the like, as well as a compact disk (CD) player. The soothing sounds cannot be changed because they are stored in the solid state memory of the device. The display on this device also shows the day, the date, room temperature, and time zone. Clocks or alarm clocks with integral media playback devices, such as a CD player, are also limited since the user must load a new CD into the device if they want to hear different or new content. And only content that exists in a CD format can be played.
There have been attempts to add customized content functionality to clocks and alarm clocks. U.S. Pat. No. 5,708,627 to Gormley shows an electronic device that stores audio messages entered by the user onto digital chips. Each message is given a chronological code so that the message can be automatically played at a specified date and time. This device provides for some customized content to be played back to the user as an alarm or as a reminder. However, the playback content is limited to that which is recordable by the user. This requires a substantial amount of effort for the user to create new alarm content.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,070,697 to Miller et al, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,365,494 to Lynch, also disclose a system with a basic function which is to allow the user to record and store custom content, such as verbal reminder messages, and to link these stored bits of content to specific alarm trigger times. At the specified times, the pre-recorded pieces of content are played as alarms or reminders. These systems require significant effort by the user to create new content to be played as alarms.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,621,458 to Mann et al discloses a docking and control apparatus for portable electronic entertainment devices. One function of this device is that it can be used to trigger activation of a variety of consumer electronic devices, for example a video camcorder unit. In this example it is assumed that the user has prerecorded content on the video camcorder, that is played back. The device may also use an integral generic message stored in memory, or a custom message that has been added by the user, as the content that is played when the alarm date and time occurs. Additionally, the device can drive a computer video monitor or television as video output devices. Again, this device requires the user to create some or all of the original content that might be played back.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,712,923 to Martin is an electronic calendar that displays the time, day, day of the week, month and year, and also displays preprogrammed and user programmed information such as holidays, birthdays, anniversaries, appointments, and other messages. One interesting feature is a function that provides for the randomly selected displaying of programmed messages such as advertisements and safety slogans at recurring times to reinforce the user's memory of such messages. Again, adding new content into this device requires substantial programming effort by the user.
What is needed is a product that simply and automatically presents customized information to a user in a specific situation at a pre-determined time. The product should include the ability to set up the user-specific preferences for the content that is delivered, based on the diverse and prolific amount and types of information available on the internet.